Bot Seeks Bot
Bot Seeks Bot is the seventh episode of the fifth season and the overall sixty-first episode of the Venture Bros. Plot Monseñor is presiding over the funeral of Supervillian Boggles the Clue Clown, and several supervillains are in attendance, including the now combined Red Mantle/Dragoon. Vendata alerts the two to an emergency meeting called by the Guild of Calamitous Intent’s Council of Thirteen to name Boggles’ replacement, as he was Councilman 4. Red Mantle is hesitant to leave, as he and Boggles were close, but Dragoon confesses he didn’t care much for the clown. Also in attendance at the funeral is Captain Sunshine and his sidekick Wonder Boy, apparently a fifth version. Office of Secret Intelligence (O.S.I.) members Brock Samson, Shore Leave, and Snoopy are surveying the funeral as The Clue Clown has been the only member of the Council identified so far (thanks to Monstroso’s tip in O.S.I. Love You). Hunter Gathers believes some of the other members of the Council may show up to the funeral and hopes they can be identified by their silhouette pictures. Meanwhile back at the funeral, Boggles performs one last riddle as read by Monseñor. His body then pops out of the casket revealing the answer. As the body is lowered into the ground, Red Mantle uses his powers to move the dirt over the casket. This alerts the O.S.I. agents to a possible member of the council being present, but they are not able to identify who it is due to them now sharing a body and being disguised as a woman. The agents, however, are able to identify Vendata as Councilman 1. Back at O.S.I. headquarters, they discover Vendata was built by Venture Industries as Venturion, but the project was abandoned when he showed erratic and psychotic behavior, such as attempting to strangle a young Dr. Thaddeus "Rusty" Venture. Hunter hatches a plan, upon seeing Vendata’s personal ad on Guildlist, to send someone in undercover to gather intelligence on Vendata while posing as their date. To this end they enlist Ghost Robot to go undercover as Guild member Galacticon. At the Council’s headquarters, a new Councilman 4 is announced by The Sovereign. Some members of the Council want to celebrate the addition of the first new councilman in 15 years, but Sovereign turns down this idea in order to maintain the anonymity of the members of the council. Red Mantle refutes this as they already know each others' identities and reveals the new councilman 4 to be Dr. Phineas Phage. Sovereign chastises him for his outburst, and adjourns the meeting. All the council members return and plan a night out on the town, except for Councilman 6, who has choir practice, Councilman 12, who is on the moon, the unrevealed Councilwoman 11, who declines because “Tara and the grandkids are flying in from Phoenix”, and Vendata, who has a date. The rest decide to meet at Councilman 7’s club as they are all too “spread out”. Upon exiting their chambers, it is revealed that all of the council members are in the same area, including Councilman 12, who is not on the moon as he claimed. Almost all the members of the Council of Thirteen are now revealed. The O.S.I agents brief Ghost Robot on his undercover mission outside the restaurant, where he is supposed to meet Vendata. Headshot has joined them on the operation. Most of the Council head to Don Hell’s club in Steppenwolf's car as they discuss their previous racing exploits. Ghost Robot and Vendata make awkward conversation at the restaurant while the O.S.I agents listen in. This goes on until they both realize they do not eat, or at least eat regular food in Vendata’s case. They decide to leave the restaurant and also go to Don Hell’s club. Brock reacts badly to this as it is not part of the plan. When they see where they are headed, Brock wonders if Vendata is setting up Ghost Robot for a hit and it is revealed that the club only allows Guild members in. The agents lose Ghost Robot’s signal as he and Vendata enter the club. Brock decides to go back to The Venture Compound to get costumes, from villains he has defeated or slain, so that they can infiltrate the club in order to rescue Ghost Robot. Snoop creates fake Guild identities for them. Sergeant Hatred walks in on them along with Dr. Venture who believes that they are going to a costume party without him. At the club the Council is enjoy their night out when they notice Vendata out on his date. Thinking Ghost Robot is Galacticon, they talk about how he’s there with a different John every week, implying his he might be a prostitute. Vendata spots the other guild members and goes over to say hi, while Brock and Shore Leave infiltrate the club. Meanwhile Dr. Venture picks up Master Billy Quizboy to go to what he believes is a costume party. As Vendata is speaking to his fellow councilmembers, Brock attempts to get Ghost Robot out of Don Hill’s. Outside, the real Galacticon shows up and heads towards Don Hell’s. Headshot tries to snipe him, but his shot is ruined when Dr. Venture crashes into their vehicle, which is camouflaged as a rock. Dr. Venture and Billy get into the club, believing they fooled the guard with a Ventriloquist routine. Inside the disguised Shore Leave sees Galacticon enter and warns Brock, who also sees Galacticon and takes Ghost Robot into the bathroom. Don Hell, mistakenly believing that Vendata’s date is leaving with someone else alerts Vendata who goes to the bathroom to follow them. Don Hell is himself alerted by the guard, who in reality recognized Dr. Venture, and leaves to deal with the situation. Vendata walks into the bathroom and into a stall where he finds what looks to be Brock and Ghost Robot in a compromising situation. In reality Brock is helping Ghost Robot out of his costume. Brock quickly knocks Vendata unconscious and takes pieces of his costume to wear while Ghost Robot is now wearing Brock’s Mummy costume. Brock radios Shore Leave to exit but he is stopped by a villain that recognizes the costume Shore Leave is wearing as belonging to a missing friend of his. Brock, now dressed as Vendata, breaks up their argument, just as Don Hell announces that he has captured Dr. Venture and Billy. Brock decides to rescue Venture, while the villain that confronted Shore Leave earlier makes a call to an unknown person, alerting them to the fact Don Hell has captured Venture. Brock and Shore Leave mount a rescue attempt, with Shore Leave attempting to cut loose a giant disco ball from the ceiling to drop on the unsuspecting villains. The Monarch and Dr. Mrs. The Monarch enter Don Hell’s, having been the persons the villain from earlier contacted. They claim Dr. Venture for themselves as his primary Archnemesis according to Guild rules. The two sides go back and forth on Guild rules for a while, when Dr. Mrs. The Monarch finally convinces them to turn Venture over. Brock, satisfied that the Monarch is harmless, leaves Dr. Venture in his custody. As he is walking away, Vendata, now stripped of his outer shell, emerges, yelling nonsensical statements. As Dr. Venture is walking towards the Monarch, he is apparently crushed by the giant disco ball which finally has been cut loose. The post credit scene reveals that The Sovereign attempted to recruit Dr. Mrs. The Monarch to the Council of Thirteen and she responded that she would think about it. It also reveals that the Revenge Society is keeping tabs on Dr. Mrs. the Monarch. Cultural references * Shoreleave refers to Vendata as the The Bicentennial Man. * It is revealed Vendeta has an ad on Guildlist which appears to be a guild version of Craiglist * Dragoon confuses the races the Guild used to have in the past, with the TV show Wacky Races and tries to recall the name of the character Dick Dastardly and his dog Muttley. * Don Hell’s club is a reference to Don Hill’s club Don Hill's. * The exterior of Don Hell’s club, an isolated concrete bunker covered with anti-nuclear-war graffiti, is inspired by the Hidden Valley bunker from the 2010 video game Fallout: New Vegas. * Vendata’s diet of a specially formulated enzyme paste may be a reference to Robocop’s diet in the movie of the same name. * The bouncer at Don Hell’s calls Augustus St. Cloud “Truman Ca-blow-me”, a reference to Truman Capote. * Dragoon's suggestion for Dr. Venture and Billy Quizboy go 'ass to ass' is a possible reference to the Darren Arnofsky film Requiem for a Dream(2000). * At 19:26, the tortures can be all read on the Wheel of Torture, itself a possible reference to the game show, Wheel of Fortune. They are as follows: **The British Smile, a wound caused by making small cuts in the corner of the victim's mouth, followed by beating him until the muscles in his face contract. **W.A.S.P. refers to a heavy metal band which, during its live shows, tied semi-naked models to a torture rack. **The Brazilian Bull is an ancient Greece execution device in which the condemned criminal was placed in a hollow metal bull-shaped vessel, then a fire set under it. The bull's acoustics were such that the criminal's screams sounded like a bull. **The Five Pains of Li Si refer to the Wikie of Imperial China. Li Si was a politician during the Qin Dynasty. The punishments are: Chi, beating of the buttocks with a cane; Zhang, beating with a large stick; Tu, compulsory penal servitude; Liu, exile to a remote location; and Si, death. **The Ceti Eel of Khan refers to the Star Trek villain Khan's use of an alien larva on Chekov in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. The eel enters the ear of a larger animal and wraps itself around the cerebral cortex, causing pain and making the host susceptible to suggestion. **Scold's Bridle was an English punishment and humiliation face-sized muzzle device, primarily used on women. The device had a bridle with spikes on the tongue, so that the victim would suffer pain whenever she tried to talk. **The rail ripper might not be a a torture device. It is a railroad plough, a vehicle designed to destroy railroad track to prevent enemies from using railroad lines. * The criminal in the wheelchair, who wins the Wheel of Torture, looks like American president, Franklin D. Roosevelt. * When Snoopy hastily tries to cloak the O.S.I. van outside of Don Hell's club it morphs into different objects similar to the workings of the chameleon circuit of the Tardis on Dr. Who. These objects include: ** An ice cream truck. This could be a reference to the Fundae Sundae ice cream truck driven by the superhero characters in the Misfits of Science television series. ** A robotic spider. ** The roadside billboard next to Billy Quizboy and Pete White's trailer that reads "If you lived here you'd be home by now". ** And finally a bolder, which Doc crashes into. * Galacticon is also the name of a Battlestar Galactica-centric convention co-created by original BSG star Richard Hatch. Trivia * All the members of The Council of 13 are revealed with the exception of Councilmen 6 and 11. Councilman 6 can be deduced to be Monseñor due to his appearance and claim of Choir practice. Councilwoman 11 was later revealed to be Mommy Longlegs. * It is heavily implied by Shoreleave, that Amber Gold is not completely faithful to Headshot as shown when she quietly stated "Everyone gets lonely sometimes" slyly looking at Brock. Also Brock’s nervous remarks to change the subject, upon Shore Leave mentioning if Amber knows about their relationship, implies he is possibly having an affair with her. * Upon seeing "Vendata", Dr. Venture recognizes him as “The Metal murder-man from my nightmares! He's real!!!”. * The costume which Shore Leave wears is the one worn by a would-be arch-nemesis the Sri Lankan Devil Bird in the episode The Doctor is Sin but is beaten by a turban-wearing Brock with a car door. * After being attacked by Brock, Vendata re-emerges in a barely functioning state. He utters “Where is my wife? Have you..? Honey…Does not compute! Does not compute! Who am I? I think the plane is going down….”. Implying his wife and himself were in a plane crash before he was turned into Vendata. Many believe this is a clue that Vendata is The Monarch’s father as The Monarch has stated his parents were a wealthy couple who died when their private plane crashed. However, this evidence is purely circumstantial. * Article 97D of Guild bylaws states: No villain may arch previously claimed nemesis, without first consulting the primary arch, of said nemesis. * The Guild’s Articles of Collusion, paragraph C stipulates: in the event of a team-up, the team’s right to arch supersede that of the primary. But not without offering the primary arch first right of refusal to participate in and/or lead said team-up. * In the scene where Ghost Robot (undercover as Galacticon) and Vendata are inside Chairman Wow's restaurant Dean can be seen seated at a table in background. It is unknown as to why he was there (besides to dine) or whom he was with. References External Links Category:Episodes Category:The Venture Bros. episodes